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CNN Saturday Morning News
The War on Terror: the New Toos
Aired September 13, 2003 - 07:12 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Two years after September 11, the fear of another terrorist attack remains a harsh reality. But new innovations aim to put you and your family at ease.
Let's talk with CNN security analyst, Kelly McCann, now about some of the new counterterrorism gadgets in development.
Hello to you, Kelly. Thanks for being here.
KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: You bet, Heidi.
COLLINS: Let's talk about this, some of these new technologies that are out there. How effective are they, and what are the ones that are really making difference right now?
MCCANN: Well, there's three real outcomes here. One is, of course, to improve the sense of security so the public feels safer. One is to dissuade bad guys as they target different installations and places. And the third is really the overall achieving a more secure environmental.
Some of the most forward-leaning technologies are, of course, around the airport industry. Some of the CT-scanning stuff, the full- body scan, these are ultrahigh-frequency waves that will actually let a image be produced that does not see the clothes but actually can see where the skin is and what devices might be carried against the skin.
Another one, of course, is the sensing, the sniffing of explosives, soft explosives, Semtex (ph), C-4, TATP. Basically right now, we check for metal detonators, the detonating devices. But soft explosives is difficult to see. So there's that technology.
One thing that has not been done in airports, though, is the subjective questioning, as they do in Israel, of determining people's intent before they get on an aircraft. I mean, we know that sometimes it's not the implement so much as it is the intent.
Other technologies, Heidi, NBC equipment, the nuclear-biological- chemical equipment, things that sense air quality. So that maybe we can't prevent a low-signature delivery of a biological or chemical weapon, but we can detect it early and get response teams in there early. These things look like ATM machines, very innocuous, can be placed anywhere.
And then lastly is the container initiatives, the gaping hole of, you know, still 2 percent of containers are checked that come into this country. I mean, even 20 percent is unacceptable, but 2 percent, two years after 9/11, we need to do better. And there's a lot of technology that let operators look inside these containers before they're allowed to actually go to distributions points internal to the U.S., Heidi.
COLLINS: And Kelly, obviously this is all going to take a lot of money, a lot of people, a lot of manpower to get these sort of things done. If you had to prioritize, where would be the first place you'd go to get some of this done to increase the security and the feeling of being secure in this country?
MCCANN: Containers and airports. I mean, I think containers is a huge problem. Personally, and many people in this industry, really object to the fact that only still 2 percent are checked. I mean, you can't only imagine what's coming into the country, both people and devices that could be coming here.
And then the other one is, of course, around the airports. And generally, security forces Heidi, training people how to do better surveillance detection, how to be able to subjectively interview people in field interview situations, and levels of observation. Because even if you raise technology to a very high degree, terrorists will find the vulnerability in human behavior around security and go that way.
So you -- but you have to raise both of them, not just one side of the table.
COLLINS: And this isn't something that the TSA is really doing right now, is it, Kelly, at the airports? Are they really very trained with tracking people's behavior, suspicious behavior, that is?
MCCANN: No. It's an area that has left -- been left, really, kind of isolated out there. We all know that the Israeli model is successful. And again, it's the Americans' view of, we want technology, technology is a better answer. That's simply not the case. Sometimes we can overstate a terrorist's sophistication. Sometimes they use extremely simple ways to get their job done.
And that gap right now is the ability to talk to people and fix them with a stare by an educated person and determine what their intent could be. And then lastly, being OK with saying, I'm sorry, you're not flying today.
I mean, that would be traumatic here in the U.S., but it happens every day in Israel.
COLLINS: And back to the bioterror arena. You mentioned these ATM-sized-type devices. How realistic is it that any of those devices will actually be employed?
MCCANN: Oh, I think it's very realistic. But I think you'll see them in a matrix, Heidi, that they'll put them in lucrative target areas, perhaps train stations, perhaps around airports, areas where there could be protests or demonstrations, where a high volume of people would be.
Some of these will be very portable, and they'll be put up and then taken down based on events. So we've already seen that with, for instance, the Marine Corps' Chemical-Biological Response Force, CBRF. After 9/11, they've been one of the most sought-after units to basically make sure that that threat is covered in the event that we have to react.
So I think you'll definitely see the employment of those devices.
COLLINS: All right. We do keep hearing it again and again, though, a lot of improvement to be made even to this day two years later.
CNN security analyst Kelly McCann, thanks so much for your insight this morning. We appreciate it, as always.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired September 13, 2003 - 07:12 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Two years after September 11, the fear of another terrorist attack remains a harsh reality. But new innovations aim to put you and your family at ease.
Let's talk with CNN security analyst, Kelly McCann, now about some of the new counterterrorism gadgets in development.
Hello to you, Kelly. Thanks for being here.
KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: You bet, Heidi.
COLLINS: Let's talk about this, some of these new technologies that are out there. How effective are they, and what are the ones that are really making difference right now?
MCCANN: Well, there's three real outcomes here. One is, of course, to improve the sense of security so the public feels safer. One is to dissuade bad guys as they target different installations and places. And the third is really the overall achieving a more secure environmental.
Some of the most forward-leaning technologies are, of course, around the airport industry. Some of the CT-scanning stuff, the full- body scan, these are ultrahigh-frequency waves that will actually let a image be produced that does not see the clothes but actually can see where the skin is and what devices might be carried against the skin.
Another one, of course, is the sensing, the sniffing of explosives, soft explosives, Semtex (ph), C-4, TATP. Basically right now, we check for metal detonators, the detonating devices. But soft explosives is difficult to see. So there's that technology.
One thing that has not been done in airports, though, is the subjective questioning, as they do in Israel, of determining people's intent before they get on an aircraft. I mean, we know that sometimes it's not the implement so much as it is the intent.
Other technologies, Heidi, NBC equipment, the nuclear-biological- chemical equipment, things that sense air quality. So that maybe we can't prevent a low-signature delivery of a biological or chemical weapon, but we can detect it early and get response teams in there early. These things look like ATM machines, very innocuous, can be placed anywhere.
And then lastly is the container initiatives, the gaping hole of, you know, still 2 percent of containers are checked that come into this country. I mean, even 20 percent is unacceptable, but 2 percent, two years after 9/11, we need to do better. And there's a lot of technology that let operators look inside these containers before they're allowed to actually go to distributions points internal to the U.S., Heidi.
COLLINS: And Kelly, obviously this is all going to take a lot of money, a lot of people, a lot of manpower to get these sort of things done. If you had to prioritize, where would be the first place you'd go to get some of this done to increase the security and the feeling of being secure in this country?
MCCANN: Containers and airports. I mean, I think containers is a huge problem. Personally, and many people in this industry, really object to the fact that only still 2 percent are checked. I mean, you can't only imagine what's coming into the country, both people and devices that could be coming here.
And then the other one is, of course, around the airports. And generally, security forces Heidi, training people how to do better surveillance detection, how to be able to subjectively interview people in field interview situations, and levels of observation. Because even if you raise technology to a very high degree, terrorists will find the vulnerability in human behavior around security and go that way.
So you -- but you have to raise both of them, not just one side of the table.
COLLINS: And this isn't something that the TSA is really doing right now, is it, Kelly, at the airports? Are they really very trained with tracking people's behavior, suspicious behavior, that is?
MCCANN: No. It's an area that has left -- been left, really, kind of isolated out there. We all know that the Israeli model is successful. And again, it's the Americans' view of, we want technology, technology is a better answer. That's simply not the case. Sometimes we can overstate a terrorist's sophistication. Sometimes they use extremely simple ways to get their job done.
And that gap right now is the ability to talk to people and fix them with a stare by an educated person and determine what their intent could be. And then lastly, being OK with saying, I'm sorry, you're not flying today.
I mean, that would be traumatic here in the U.S., but it happens every day in Israel.
COLLINS: And back to the bioterror arena. You mentioned these ATM-sized-type devices. How realistic is it that any of those devices will actually be employed?
MCCANN: Oh, I think it's very realistic. But I think you'll see them in a matrix, Heidi, that they'll put them in lucrative target areas, perhaps train stations, perhaps around airports, areas where there could be protests or demonstrations, where a high volume of people would be.
Some of these will be very portable, and they'll be put up and then taken down based on events. So we've already seen that with, for instance, the Marine Corps' Chemical-Biological Response Force, CBRF. After 9/11, they've been one of the most sought-after units to basically make sure that that threat is covered in the event that we have to react.
So I think you'll definitely see the employment of those devices.
COLLINS: All right. We do keep hearing it again and again, though, a lot of improvement to be made even to this day two years later.
CNN security analyst Kelly McCann, thanks so much for your insight this morning. We appreciate it, as always.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
